Who Invented Peanuts?

  •     WHO INVENTED PEANUTS ?

  • European explorers first discovered peanuts in Brazil. Peanuts were grown as far north as Mexico when the Spanish began their exploration of the new world. 
  • The explorers took peanuts back to Spain, and from there, traders and explorers spread them to Asia and Africa.
  • Africans were the first people to introduce peanuts to North America beginning in the 1700s.
  • Records show that it wasn’t until the early 1800s that peanuts were grown as a commercial crop in the U.S.

 

  • They were first grown in Virginia and used mainly for oil, food and as a cocoa substitute.
  • At this time, peanuts were regarded as a food for livestock and the poor and were considered difficult to grow and harvest.
  • Peanut production steadily grew in the first half of the nineteenth century. 
  • Peanuts became prominent after the Civil War when Union soldiers found they liked them and took them home. Both armies subsisted on this food source high in protein.
  • Their popularity grew in the late 1800s when PT Barnum’s circus wagons traveled across the country and vendors called “hot roasted peanuts!” to the crowds.
  • Soon street vendors began selling roasted peanuts from carts and peanuts also became popular at baseball games.
  • While peanut production rose during this time, peanuts were still harvested by hand , leaving stems and trash in the peanuts.
  • Thus, poor quality and lack of uniformity kept down the demand for peanuts.
  • Around 1900, labor-saving equipment was invented for planting, cultivating, harvesting and picking peanuts from the plants, as well as for shelling and cleaning the kernels. 
  • With these significant mechanical aids, demand for peanuts grew rapidly, especially for oil, roasted and salted nuts, peanut butter and candy.
  • In the early 1900s peanuts became a significant agricultural crop when the boll weevil threatened the South’s cotton crop.
  • People following the suggestions of noted scientist Dr. George Washington Carver, to peanuts served as an effective commercial crop and, for a time, rivaled the position of cotton in the South.